Take care
by Sharkey52
Summary: It was just an ordinary day for Marlene, helping Tifa out in the bar as usual. Denzel changed that, and as did the promise she vowed she would never break.


**Take care**

_**(A Denzel and Marlene story)**_

Marlene stared at the reflection of the girl in the back of the spoon. Through the scrapes and scratches on the metal, a youthful brunette stared her pretty brown eyes back at her. Marlene frowned as she realised the other girl's pink bow was askew. Dropping the spoon onto a pile of other cutlery, Marlene quickly fixed her own bow before checking the reflection in the back of the spoon. The girl's bow was now also fixed. Smiling with satisfaction, she delicately put the spoon on the spoon pile and moved onto drying another fork.

Marlene had been having a good day. Still no news from Cloud, but Tifa had let her help in the bar. Though she had been told not to touch the glasses, she had been allowed to dry the cutlery. This made the six-year-old extremely happy - there was nothing she liked better than helping Tifa in the bar.

Speaking of Tifa, Marlene paused to look at the stairs as she realised the black-haired woman wasn't back yet. She'd gone upstairs to answer the phone and had yet to come back. Marlene was debating on whether to go upstairs and see if Tifa needed any help or just continuing with the task Tifa had originally gave her. Just as she had made her mind to go upstairs, Marlene heard it. The roar of a motorbike in the nearby square.

'_Cloud must be home_!' she realised with a gasp. She was about to rush to the door so she could see Cloud the nanosecond he got to 7th Heaven, when Tifa came almost flying down the stairs and caught her by the shoulders.

"Marlene sweetie, can you make the bed in the spare room for me?" she asked. Marlene blinked at the request.

"Is Daddy coming home?" she requested hopefully. Tifa shook her head.

"No honey, someone very special."

'_Someone even more special than Daddy_?' The idea seemed ludicrous to Marlene. How could someone be more special than her daddy?

"Please, Marlene" Tifa tried. Though she still had a million questions she wanted to ask about this visitor that wasn't her daddy, Marlene suppressed them. She was patient for a six-year-old, and she knew Tifa always ended up explaining everything eventually.

"Uh-huh" she nodded with a smile, knowing this would make Tifa smile too, and hurried upstairs. The spare room was directly opposite hers and near-completely identical, so Marlene knew where the spare pillows and blankets were kept. She didn't know who this strange visitor was, but it sounded like they meant a lot of Tifa; and if taking care of this person would make Tifa happy, then Marlene would make the best bed they had ever seen!

It was just as she had finished she heard the door of the bar open and then shut. Standing by the bed in confusion, Marlene stopped to try and hear what was going on. Tifa and Cloud were talking very quietly and urgently, slowly making their way towards the stairs. Marlene could only make out a few words: "Call", "Crying", "Poor thing", "Church" and most unusually of all "Aerith". It was a name never to be mentioned in Cloud's presence, so she was surprised when she heard it being used so freely. It wasn't until they were at the top of the stairs she could hear the adults' voices clearly.

"...collapsed. Geostigma I think. He was trembling so much he nearly fell off at least twice."

"The poor boy! He sounded so scared on the phone!"

Then the adults entered the room, and Marlene noticed Cloud was carrying something in his arms. At first she thought it was just a haversack of some kind, but when she realised what it really was, she gasped.

"Is he alright?!" she squeaked. Without a word or even half a smile, Cloud gently pushed past her, peeled back the covers the best he could with only one hand and laid the boy on the bed. He then pulled the covers up to the boy's chin and left the room. Tifa laid a comforting hand on Marlene's shoulder.

"He'll be alright, sweetie" she told her "He's just a little sick, that's all." Marlene looked at Tifa, then the boy, then Tifa again.

"Who is he?" she asked. Tifa straightened and looked towards the sunlight filtering through the window.

"I don't know" she answered "I really don't." Then she looked down at a rather confused Marlene. "Marlene? Can you stay here in case he wakes up?" Marlene nodded determinedly, eager to help in any way she could if it would get her answers.

"Sure" she agreed. Tifa headed back downstairs, probably to talk to Cloud for the first time in, like, forever. Marlene pulled a chair from the corner of the room to the edge of the bed. She sat down in it and stared at the boy, determined not to miss the second he woke up. It was a long five minutes after the end of her attention span when she was seriously starting to debate on finding her sketchbook to relieve her boredom when Mr Snoozy decided to wake up. Marlene had been moving between concentration and daydreaming for some time, but a flutter of eyelids snapped her back to the former.

"You're awake! Are you okay?! What happened?! Why were you with Cloud?! Do you know him?! Do you?!"

The boy didn't really seem to register her bombardment of questions. He shivered slightly and slowly rolled his head towards her.

"Wh-Who...are you?"

Marlene stared at the eyes watching her. They were a deep blue, like the sky at twilight. Not unlike Cloud's, but slightly different - more innocent, but at the same time, more intelligent. There was no fear there, no certainty, just...sadness.

"Me? Oh, I'm Marlene!" Marlene shot him a radiant smile, fully intent on cheering him up. "My Daddy's away so I'm staying here with Tifa and Cloud! He's the man who brought you here by the way. Who are you?" The boy blinked several times, and Marlene was just going to assume he didn't like talking and she should tell him more about herself, to make him more comfortable around her at least, when finally his quiet, cracking voice whispered:

"Denzel."

Marlene's eyes lit up. He'd told her his name - that was the first step to being friends!

"Denzel, huh?" she smiled "That's a pretty name! I've never met a Denzel before!" Whilst Marlene was spilling a million sentences a second, Denzel seemed very reluctant to participate. Rather than respond, he screwed his eyes shut and slowly pressed a palm to his forehead.

"Is something wrong?" Marlene asked, leaning forward slightly in her seat.

"H-Hurts" Denzel's small voice whimpered. With a gasp, Marlene jumped to her feet, standing over him as best she could.

"You're hurt?! Where?!" she asked urgently. Denzel didn't say anything, but grit his teeth to try and stop another whimper of pain escaping his throat, the palm on his forehead pressing harder.

"Does it hurt here?" Marlene placed her hand on top of the one on his forehead. Automatically Denzel's other hand shot out from under the covers and grabbed her wrist. Squeaking with alarm, Marlene jumped back, him releasing her wrist so she could draw it back. She stood stock still, thoughts racing through her head as she tried to work out what she had done to cause him to react like that.

"Don't" was the only answer she got, whispered so quietly it could barely be heard.

"But you're hurt" Marlene reminded him. Anyone else would've interpreted Denzel's reaction to mean: but I don't want you to help. But Marlene was only six, and in her mind this boy was hurting and in need of healing. "How can I help you if you won't let me see what's wrong?" Gently, she brushed some of his brown bangs away from where he was covering his forehead. As she studied her fingers, she realised they were covered in what looked like black sludge. Frowning, she waggled her hand to flick it away.

Then, she had a brilliant idea.

"I'll get the green box!" she gasped with delighted realisation "That's what Tifa does when somebody's hurt! Wait here!" In hindsight, that was a pretty stupid thing to say considering Denzel was unlikely to be going anywhere soon, but Marlene was so hyped up she didn't really much of it.

She grabbed the back of her chair and pushed it out into the corridor, making a screeching sound loud enough to wake the dead on the wooden floor. Going on past Cloud's study, she pushed the chair to the door of the storage cupboard. She frowned as she found she had to push the chair back a bit to open the door before slidding back into place and jumping on top of it. Reaching up, her fingers felt the material of the green box and pulled it down from the top shelf. Satisfied, Marlene set the green box down on the seat of the chair and undid the rest of the process until she and the chair were back in Denzel's room.

"Here you go!" Marlene smiled, unzipping the green box and removing a bandage. She placed the bandage on his forehead where he was in pain and tied it around his head, smiling in satisfaction at her work.

"I'm...sorry."

Marlene blinked and looked up at this strange comment. "Hmm?"

Denzel was looking right at her now, dark-blue eyes meeting her brown ones. He appeared to almost shake his head.

"Everyone who gets close to me...gets hurt."

Marlene paused, unsure of what to say, biting her lip. It suddenly made sense why he didn't want her to help him. Attempting to cheer him up, she sent him an award-winning smile.

"I won't get hurt!" she smiled "Daddy and Tifa and Cloud will protect me! And you too!"

There was an awkward pause as no one said anything, and Marlene's smile faltered. Then Denzel finally eased the smallest of smiles onto his face - but at least it was a smile.

"See" Marlene took his hand in her own and squeezed it gently "Everything's gonna be alright."

Denzel may have nodded, but it was really too small and slow to qualify as one. His head rolled on the pillow and he closed his eyes, dropping into the land of dreams. Marlene smiled as she took one of the locks of hair that almost but not completely covered his eyes and moved it over his forehead. There, now that horrible black mark was completely hidden. Now he was just sleeping. Not hurting, sleeping.

"Don't worry" she whispered, squeezing his hand again "I'll take care of you. I promise."


End file.
